News

Coming this fall to Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles

(TO VISIT THE ORIGINAL WEBSITE, CLICK HERE)

Sunday, October 23

8:30 a.m. Sign-In

9:15 a.m. Opening Ceremony

10 a.m. AIDS Walk Los Angeles Begins!

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT STREET CLOSURES, CLICK HERE.

OCTOBER 16, 2016 9am-4pm

CicLAvia catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation and good health through car-free streets. CicLAvia engages with people to positively transform our relationship with our communities and with each other.

CicLAvia first took to the streets of Los Angeles in 2010 to challenge the concept of Southern California as a car-only region. CicLAvia was launched to temporarily remove cars from streets for one day and open them to other forms of non-motorized transit – pedestrians, bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, wheelchairs and more.

TO VIEW STREET CLOSURES, CLICK HERE. 

For more information on this event, click here.

 

By Carolina A Miranda, L.A. Times

It may not seem as if downtown Los Angeles is in need of yet another arts space. But it is coming nonetheless — and it’s aiming to fill a more locally minded role than some of the institutions around it.

The Main Museum will be a non-collecting institution housed in a series of historic early 20th century structures in the Old Bank District. Helmed by Allison Agsten, who previously served as the curator of public engagement at the Hammer Museum, the curatorial focus will be resolutely local.

The mission, Agsten says, “is to engage the public with the most important ideas of our time through the art of Los Angeles.”

The museum, which is still being designed by the L.A.-based Tom Wiscombe Architecture, will have 40,000 square feet of exhibition space on the ground floors of the 1903 Hellman Building and the 1905 Farmers and Merchants Building. It will also have a rooftop sculpture garden and amphitheater.

Seed money for the project is being provided by real estate mogul Tom Gilmore and his partner, Jerri Perrone. Construction, estimated to cost $50 million, is expected to take roughly four years.

Even though the doors won’t open for some time, the Main Museum will be active long before its official opening date.

This fall, the museum is launching “Beta Main,” a series of informal public programs to take place in some of the completed storefront spaces. This kicks off Oct. 30 with a 10-day event staged by Los Angeles artists Suzanne Lacy and Andrea Bowers — two figures known for their socially minded pieces.

Agsten says that it’s part of the museum’s attempt to have a dialogue with local audiences before things are set in stone.

“This is an adaptive re-use project, so we wanted to take a look at the possibilities related to that and start using some spaces sooner rather than later,” Agsten says. “It’s in the spirit of what’s ahead for us … it’s about experimenting and trying things.”

The as-of-yet unnamed piece to be staged by Lacy and Bowers is a follow-up to a performance the pair did at New York City’s Drawing Center in 2014 — in which Bowers taught Lacy to draw. (Lacy is a performance and social practice artist and doesn’t generally draw.) The Beta Main event will accomplish the inverse, with Lacy teaching Bowers how to be a performance artist.

“They will, over the course of the piece, bring in scholars and other people to talk about performance and the history of performance,” Agsten says. “The public can come and be involved and it will culminate on election day [Nov. 8] with a special program they are devising.”

This will be followed by other public offerings. As part of one Beta Main event, titled “Office Hours,” Agsten will open the doors to artists based in the neighborhood so that she can get to know them and their work. She is also planning an exhibition of the work of Boyle Heights photographer Star Montana.

Because of the ongoing construction, projects will be of a flexible, pop-up nature. “If someone says, I have an idea for a talk,” she explains, “I can say, come down and we’ll do it.”

Agsten says these projects will help feed what ultimately happens at the larger museum, which she says will complement — rather than compete with — what already exists in downtown. (Namely, collecting institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art and the new Broad museum.)

“Considering the environment of Los Angeles, I think we are better off using our resources doing things other than buying stuff,” she says of her institution’s mission. “Residencies will be at the core of our program, rather than a collection.”

And the space won’t simply be devoted to of-the-moment art. There will be historical overviews, too.

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking into the history of art and art-making in downtown Los Angeles,” she says. “I’m trying to understand the backdrop I’m working in. That seems really important. The idea that art in L.A. is new or of the last five years — that’s pretty crazy.”

Phase 1 of Main Museum, which will consist of the refurbishment of the ground floor spaces, is expected to be completed by 2018. The roof sections would be finished up two years later, by 2020.

by Mary Holland, The New York Post

Few neighborhoods better represent Los Angeles’ newfound commercial and cultural vibrancy quite like its historic downtown.

Anchored by the Staples Center and set a few miles east of the Sunset Strip, this once-forgotten district has had a cool, stylish makeover — with new hotels, shopping, restaurants and cultural spots. The regeneration of Downtown LA didn’t happen overnight; cleaning up a gritty inner-city area took time. But today downtown buzzes with a 24-hour vibe reminiscent of Soho or South Beach. Here’s what to do the next time you’re in town.

Start your morning with a coffee from G&B at the landmark, nearly century-old Grand Central Market.

There, its open-air, 360-degree coffee bar serves award-winning java that will wow even the snootiest coffee snobs. Throughout the market, look for a mix of new and classic food stalls, some of which have been around since the ’50s. Go early to beat the crowds — though there’s always a line at the naughtily named (and much-hyped) Egg Slut. Brave the queue for their beloved brioche-bunned sandwiches, or instead, make your way to Knead, where Grand Central Market’s most underrated breakfast sandwich awaits: over-easy eggs, fontina cheese, tomato jam and arugula wedged between two buttery slices of toast.

Once sated, head for the newest — and the most heart-pounding — addition to downtown, the OUE Skyspace LA atop the US Bank Tower. It’s America’s tallest building west of Chicago. This open-air observation deck has panoramic views of the city — from the Hollywood sign all the way to the Pacific. If you aren’t afraid of heights, try OUE’s split-level Skyslide, a translucent glass pipeline that transports brave visitors between the building’s 70th and 69th floors.

If all that adrenaline has made you hungry, head to B.S. Taqueria, the new brick-and-mortar Mexican spot from local pop-up king Ray Garcia. Equal parts cocktail lounge and upmarket taco joint, Garcia’s simple and straightforward menu includes highlights such as clam and lardo tacos followed by crisp churros for dessert — along with ample tequila, mezcal and cool Tecates.

A few streets away you’ll find California’s largest book and record store, The Last Bookstore. Even if you’ve moved on to ebooks and tablets, the shop is a wonderful space to get lost and discover delightful eccentricities, such as its horror vault — which houses a selection of cult horror books.

Nothing better symbolizes Downtown’s ascent than the Broad Museum, which opened last year. The museum is free, which means lines can snake around the block. (Pro tip: pre-book tickets online.) But the wait is worth it. Inside, you’ll find classic works, such as Andy Warhol’s “Twenty Jackies” and “Three Marilyns.” While the gallery has a phenomenal permanent collection, it also has rotating exhibitions by blue-chip artists and photographers including “Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life,” which runs through early October.

Had enough art? Then head to Redbird for dinner, where chef Neal Fraser (a native Angeleno) serves new American fare — think fresh scallops with fava beans and duck with wild rice and cherries. The food here might be the highlight, but the beautiful, historic setting is almost as impressive. Housed in a beautifully updated rectory in the oldest cathedral in California, Redbird is tasty proof that Downtown LA has really cleaned up its act.

Staying over? Then consider the Standard hotel, which inhabits the former Superior Oil headquarters and whose 2002 opening was a harbinger of more change to come (from $219). Although much of the building’s interiors have been updated, the marble-clad walls, office elevators and “Mad Men”-esque rooms are reminders of the building’s Mad Men-era past. There’s a ping-pong room and a chic ’50s-style restaurant, but the real clincher is the rooftop, complete with a bar and heated pool with prime downtown views.

Or, for something completely different, head for the superbly cool Line Hotel in bordering Koreatown — with industrial-style rooms whose floor-to-ceiling views face either Hollywood or downtown (from $232). The hotel restaurant, Roy Choi’s Commissary, is set in a eye-popping greenhouse next to the pool and is, perhaps, the most Instagrammed restaurant in all of LA. Guests also have access to the Break Room 86, a superbly cool speakeasy where you can rent private karaoke rooms.

7th& Broadway

“I grew up in Manhattan Beach, but I’ve also lived in Los Feliz for twenty years. I have a pizza box because I just met my husband for lunch at Bottega Louis. Today I am in downtown because I own a loft here. I bought a loft in downtown but I don’t live there, it’s just my workspace. I’m a jewelry designer down here. My favorite memory of downtown is actually the renovation of Cliftons. For me, my favorite district is the jewelry district because I make jewelry, so it is perfect.”

7th & Broadway

“I grew up in West Covina. I am walking over to the T Mobile store right now to try and unlock my phone. I don’t have a favorite memory of downtown because I’m making new memories right now, I just started living at the Union Rescue Mission out on Skid Row. But today I’m looking forward to getting my phone back so I can contact the outside world again.”

6th & Spring

“I grew up in LA: Boyle Heights. I’m in downtown right now because I’m working. I do security for filming, they’re filming a commercial in there. It’s for Farmer’s Insurance. My favorite part of downtown are the streets, everything about them. They are my favorite memory of downtown. Today I am looking forward to getting paid.”

5th and Spring

“I have a lot of memories in downtown, most of them just involve the local culture and inhabitants. We have a good time roaming around here. Today we are looking forward to eating lunch. We’re going to Cole’s, it’s like, an underground bar.”

by Amy Edelen, Los Angeles Times

Downtown’s L.A.’s Broadway Theater District, home to one of the largest concentrations of historic movie palaces in the nation, is gaining a new lease on life that doesn’t involve showing films.

Some of the dozen remaining theaters are turning to other uses: There’s a hotel, the occasional church and retail. The theaters may be unusual because of their opulence and because there are so many of them in such a small area, but they reflect a growing need by landlords to find alternative uses for the cavernous spaces as movie audiences gravitate away from single-screen theaters toward multiplexes and streaming video services.

The Rialto Theatre, built in 1917, remained dilapidated for several years before Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters leased the 10,000-square-foot building and restored the original marquee in 2013.

Urban Outfitters spent several years contemplating a store in downtown Los Angeles. At the time, everything was happening around 5th and Spring streets, but the company was interested in the theater district, said John Hauser, Urban Outfitters chief officer of brand experience.

“We toured 12 of the theaters on the street,” Hauser said. “Most are stunning, but not really conducive to retail.”

Opening Urban Outfitters in the Rialto Theatre became much more viable, Hauser said, once the boutique Ace Hotel opened in 2014 in the upper revamped floors of Broadway’s United Artists building.

“We were fortunate the city was so eager and interested in getting Broadway to be revitalized,” Hauser said, referring to the city’s “Bringing Back Broadway” initiative. “We knew we wanted to get in on the ground floor. We wanted to be in the right area and the right neighborhood.”

COS, a higher-end brand of H&M, plans to open its third Los Angeles-based location in the historic Olympic Theatre next year.

Construction will begin soon on the store, with more than 5,500 square feet utilized as retail space, including the ground floor and mezzanine level. COS will restore the original facade and Olympic sign to honor the building’s prominent history as a theater, said Marie Honda, COS managing director.

“We actually have quite a few stores in locations of historical prominence around the world and it is true that such venues often do stand out to us for a number of reasons,” Honda said in an email. “Sometimes, it’s because of their charm or striking architecture and other times, it’s for more practical reasons.”

A variety of businesses expressed interest in leasing the Olympic Theatre, including galleries, furniture stores, club operators and smaller clothing stores, said Brigham Yen, Downtown LA Rising blogger and broker for the property.

“Right now, the momentum is building due to the Ace Hotel and what’s been happening around 9th and Broadway,” Yen said. “Retailers are scouting. They know they want to be downtown, but unsure where they should be.”
Retailers are attracted to these unique spaces because it sets them apart from run-of-the-mill stores, Yen said.

“A lot of people that tour the spaces really do appreciate the historic value of these buildings,” he said. “They have the best intentions to make the building shine.”

Because the theaters aren’t equal in size and condition, it poses a challenge to bring them back as movie houses, Yen said. (None of the downtown Broadway theaters shows films on a regular basis, although some host special screening series and live performances.)

“There’s so much money required to restore these buildings. It costs millions. We need big chains that are still cool and relevant. We need deep pockets to come put in the money,” he said. “I’m really so grateful that these retailers are saving these buildings. When they put money in them, it gives them a purpose again that people can interact with.”

Single-screen theaters are being turned into drugstores, gyms and fitness centers by national chains looking for real estate, said Ross Melnick, associate professor of film and media studies at UC Santa Barbara.
“There are a lot of examples in New York and Los Angeles,” he said. “That is what’s happening now with downtown.”

The Rialto and Olympic theaters join a growing number of former movie houses used for retail purposes.The CVS pharmacy chain converted the Golden Gate Theater in East Los Angeles in 2012. Apple is in talks to lease the historic Tower Theatre downtown for a retail store, people familiar with the negotiations said.

Melnick said given the unique density of downtown’s historic theaters, it would be preferable for them to remain as movie houses. But the viability of that is up to the property owners and their ability to convert the spaces for film and live programming.

“One good thing about [retail] restoration is if they make it so that the space could be converted back,” he said. “Most careful restorations usually do that.”

However, the desires of property owners may not sync up with preservationists, and the difference between converting a bank compared with a theater is the attachment that people have to the buildings.

“For a lot of people, these spaces have a lot of different memories,” he said. “They have a certain kind of emotional stake in them. That’s why they can be contested when they are changed. That also accounts for some of the emotions that can run a little higher around these projects.”

Retail is essential to build a world-class shopping district downtown with regional and national draw, Yen said.

“It’s all interconnected synergy that will happen once Broadway has variety of businesses that attract a wide group of people,” he said. “It’s important to get some of these theaters that may not have the potential to be entertainment venues to be activated.”

Rents are edging upward and lack of retail construction in downtown Los Angeles will boost demand for existing properties, according to a recent report by commercial real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap.

The average retail rent in Los Angeles County rose 5.6% over last year to $2.35 per square foot and is expected to rise an additional 3.2%. In downtown Los Angeles, the asking rent is $2.55 per square foot – up 9.6% over last year, with a projected increase of 5.2% in the year ahead, according to the report.

Although it’s unlikely in the near future that all 12 Broadway theaters will be active, it would be ideal to have a mix of retail and movie houses, as long as the buildings are respected and brought to life, said Linda Dishman, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

“The theaters aren’t open all the time for the most part and retail is, so it gives people a chance to go see a movie on a weekend,” she said. “What both projects are doing is they are going to relight the neon. There are people who would much appreciate that. It adds to the vitality of the street.”

by Juliet Bennett Rylah, LAist

Clifton’s Cafeteria is getting a new chef and opening up a coffee shop called The Old Mill.

Chef Andrew Pastore will be taking over the culinary program at Clifton’s Cafeteria, giving the menu a complete overhaul save a few Clifton’s staples, according to a release. Pastore said via a statement that the goal is to “offer the best selection by combining cafeteria classics as well as modern favorites with a whimsical twist.”

Pastore plans to use seasonal ingredients as he combines those cafeteria staples—turkey and pie, for instance—with new dishes, like “a carved watermelon shark eating a mozzarella skewer.”

Pastor was born in Brooklyn, went to culinary school in New York, and learned French cuisine at Jean-Georges’ JoJo. He landed a job at Wolfgang Puck’s Granita in Malibu, then spent time at Michael’s in Santa Monica, Green Door and Pig & Whistle, among others. He also taught at Le Cordon Bleu, then the Art Institute Los Angeles College of Culinary Arts.

In addition to the new food, Clifton’s will also be opening a coffee shop. It’s name, The Old Mill, is a reference to a mill that formerly stood on the site where Clifton’s resides today. The Old Mill will offer Stumptown coffee, sandwiches, desserts and doughnuts made in-house. Clifton’s plans to soft open The Old Mill this weekend.

And for any night owls, new late-night bites are coming to the after hours menu, available from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Selections include pizza, sandwiches, charcuterie and desserts.

by Andrew Khouri, LA Times

A development group led by Rising Realty Partners plans to transform the vacant Title Insurance and Trust building in downtown Los Angeles into creative offices, a roughly $40-million renovation job.

The Los Angeles firm, along with Lionstone Investments and Industry Partners, purchased the historic Art Deco building last week and has already begun work on the project.

A purchase price was not disclosed, but the deal is the latest in downtown’s historic core, where old buildings are being revamped and new towers erected.

Earlier this month, a New York City developer revealed plans to renovate the Cecil Hotel on Main Street, and in May another company broke ground on a 24-story apartment tower a short walk from the aging Title Insurance building near the corner of 4th and Spring streets.

Hal Bastian, a downtown L.A. development consultant, said the Rising Realty project marks a milestone for the historic core – once an office hub that declined as businesses left for the suburbs and new high-rises on Bunker Hill.

In the past two decades, he noted, most renovations along Main, Spring and Broadway have been residential conversions of vacant office towers. But with the area undergoing a revitalization because of those conversions, Rising is betting that businesses once again want a Spring Street address.

“It’s coming full circle,” Bastian said.

Renovations at the 433 S. Spring St. building will include returning the gleam to the facade and removing lead paint and asbestos.

The development group plans to create about 300,000 square feet of modern offices in the 11-story tower – most of which is expected to be of the creative variety, with open floor plans and lots of natural light.

The project also calls for retail space on the ground floor and a restaurant on the roof with a 360-degree view of downtown.

“It’s going to need a lot of love and care,” said Christopher Rising, president of Rising Realty. “But we are really looking forward to the opportunity to bring it back.”

Lionstone, a Houston-based real estate investment firm, and Industry Partners, a Santa Monica real estate services firm, previously worked with Rising Realty to transform the PacMutual center at 6th and Olive streets into creative offices.

The Beaux Arts building, which is closer to Bunker Hill, sold for $200 million last year after Rising Realty acquired it for just $60 million in 2012.

The Title Insurance and Trust Building opened in 1928, a time when Spring Street was known as the Wall Street of the West and the firm was “riding high on the wave of Southern California real estate development,” the Los Angeles Conservancy wrote in a request to make the building a historic cultural monument.

“Up until the mid-’60s, Spring Street was the place to be” for businesses, Rising said.

But by the late 1970s, with Spring Street on the decline, Title Insurance and Trust decamped to Rosemead, following other firms that had already fled the historic core.

With businesses leaving for Bunker Hill and the suburbs, Spring and Main streets fell on hard times. But in recent years, the area has seen a revival and is now home to lofts, restaurants and bars.

Mike Condon Jr., an executive managing director with Cushman & Wakefield, said Rising Realty’s project will help extend that revitalization north to a stretch of Spring Street that has seen less investment.

“It’s a big boost to that northern pocket of the historic core,” said Condon, who represented the seller, Capital Foresight.